Marie Cardouat’s game illustrations have always been in a style fitting for beautiful children’s books, and that is still just as true in HOP!. Beyond the illustrations, the game’s story is equally made for kids. After finding a book describing a magical kingdom in the sky, the child heroes of HOP! decide that they have to see the realm of magical creatures living in the clouds for themselves. And once that decision is made, it is a matter of moments before they are floating into the sky, each carried by a handful of balloons. And just like that you’re in the middle of a dexterity game for the whole family, and prettier than pretty much any other game out there.

Many of us gamers have spent countless hours of our lives fighting the Great Old Ones. But do we even know why? Have we done the research on that one? Maybe under the reign of Cthulhu, Azathoth and their like there would be free cotton candy for everyone. You now have the chance to do that research. But be careful, the knowledge of the Old Ones quickly leads to insanity – as you will find out when playing Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc’s Pocket Madness.

I imagine that sometimes the pitch for a new board game must sound a lot like the pitch for the weird blockbuster movie of a year. “It’s a Patience game, only you can play it with friends and it’s about rescuing people from the Titanic.” It probably wasn’t an easy sale, but here it is: SOS Titanic, the multiplayer solitaire game with superpowers.

Panic in Meeple City. Giant monsters are converging on the city, and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to stop them. Within minutes they start throwing cars, tearing down buildings and … MUNCHING MEEPLES!
Will there be a happy ending for anyone?

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Panic in Meeple City. Giant monsters are converging on the city, and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to stop them. Within minutes they start throwing cars, tearing down buildings and … MUNCHING MEEPLES!
Will there be a happy ending for anyone?

German cities tend to have a long and eventful history. Germany is also one of the origins of modern boardgames. It comes as little surprise that many German cities have already been used as setting for boardgames. Cologne has Colonia, Hamburg Hamburgum, Trier Porta Nigra, and the list goes on. One city not so blessed so far is Ulm. Until now, that is, because now there is Ulm, a medium heavy strategy game Günter Burkhardt designed around the city.

The Settlers of Catan have come a long way. From their little fictional island all the way to the USA in Trails to Rails and then all the way back to Europe to become Merchants of Europe. It’s been a long, strange trip.

Fields of Arle is Uwe Rosenberg’s love letter to the home of his ancestors, East Frisia and especially the village of Arle. It’s a worker placement game that is unusual in not allowing more than two players, but is equally unusual in the number of options you have and factors to consider. It’s a big game, a long game, and a game that brings many aspects of medieval Frisia to life.

The 1960s are upon us. Beatlemania. Marilyn Monroe. Breakfast at Tiffanys.
In Berlin, however, a wall not only divides two cities – it separates worlds. Nowhere on the planet are the two superpowers closer, their differences more visible. Beneath the surface, however, it is the similarities which are equally striking. Checkpoint Charlie was one of the few checkpoints between West and East Berlin, heavily guarded and watched. It was also the central checkpoint through which Spies passed from one sector to the other. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to sniff around for the Chief of Spies trying to make it through Checkpoint Charlie undetected. And you can take the sniffing quite literally, as each player assumes the role of a dog, representing the K-9 division.

The Master Wizards all told you, don’t mess with Baba Yaga. But of course you wouldn’t listen, she is only one witch, what could she possibly do to you. And now you find yourself in the Wilderness, a few days missing from your memory and horribly disfigured, with parts of your body shrunken and grown completely out of proportion. And not in a way that you’d find advantageous. Your only way back to full humanoidity goes through Baba Yaga.

Year2009PublisherRavensburgerAuthorStefan FeldPlayers2 – 5Age12 – 199Time90StrategyLuckInteractionComponents & DesignComplexityScore In 1557, the Portuguese first gained the right for permanent settlement on the[…]